When in doubt, get guns out of the house

The mass shootings in Newtown cannot stand. Our congressional leaders need to do everything in their power to provide more logical gun restrictions in our country. We have been under assault for years and — at the very, very least — the ban on assault-style rifles, etc. must be reinstated. Guns do kill people, and semiautomatic guns kill more.

There also needs to be additional legal, judicial, and police-aided options available to people who know there is a troubled or dangerous person in their family or community, similar to the Baker Act in Florida (which temporarily commits people at risk of hurting themselves or others). In addition, public education must be put in place to encourage people to recognize the signs of mental illness, as well as anger and isolation or other pathologies, and take stricter precautions with even "locked-up" weaponry, a public service announcement along the lines of: "When in doubt, get the guns out of the house."